Clinic charging Re 1 per patient to come up at 5 Mumbai stations

MUMBAI: Medical facilities that will charge patients Re 1 will come up at five Central Railway (CR) stations in about two months. The railways will provide space free of cost and a clinic has agreed to extend medical services at one rupee. Apart from providing emergency help to railway accident victims in the golden hour, the clinic will have MBBS doctors 24x7 for patients with routine illness. There will also be visiting doctors like specialists in skin disease, diabetes and gynaecology. A pathology lab will be set up offering tests at a discount and pharmacists will sell medicines at discounted rates.

A senior CR official said, “Emergency Medical Rooms (EMRs) with one-rupee clinic will come up at Kurla, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Wadala and Dadar. They will be established at 15 more stations depending on when the first set is ready, expectedly in a couple of months.“ EMRs are being set up at various stations of CR and Western Railway on the direction of the high court. CR has adopted a public-private partnership (PPP) model to do this. Thus, CR will not pay anything, and will only provide water, electricity and space. The other expenses, primarily on manpower and equipment, have to be borne by the agency setting up the facility. Nevertheless, the agency is being allowed to carry out private practice or even set up pharmacies to recover costs in exchange of offering free golden hour treatment to accident victims. There will also be a pathological lab offering tests at discounted rates.

Dr Rahul Ghule of Magidil, which is setting up the facilities said, “There will be MBBS doctors present in these clinics roundthe-clock.“

Divisional Railway User's Consultative Committee (DRUCC) member Jitesh Matalia said, “It is a noble concept that will help save accident victims, and also help Mumbaikars who have tight schedules.“